The United States is manipulating humanitarian concern in an effort to protect its proxy militias and its imperial regime-change project in Syria.

The media and intellectual classes are dutifully falling in line, promoting a narrative of military aggression under the cover of “protecting civilians.” These same “responsibility to protect” arguments led to the invasions of Iraq and Libya, exponentially increasing the massacres, chaos, and proliferation of violent extremism within those countries. They are hypocritical, designed to further interests of conquest and domination, and will lead to more death and destruction in Syria as well.

The United States has no stake in the wellbeing of Syrian civilians, despite their condemnations of Russia’s offensive in Aleppo. This is clearly shown in the fact that the people they are supporting are guilty of the same crimes they accuse Russia and Syria of: indiscriminate attacks, targeting of civilians, destruction of schools, hospitals, etc. Furthermore, the offensive in Aleppo is really no different from what the U.S. did in Manbij, where they are said to have incorporated a “scorched earth policy” while they liberated the city from ISIS, whereby the civilian population was treated “as if they were terrorists or ISIS supporters.”

The attacks on the planet, civil liberties and human rights are at the core of the American profit-driven, hierarchically-based governing system. While the ultra-rich keep prospering, large swaths of the population are disenfranchised. The tenures of Republican President Ronald Reagan and Democratic President Bill Clinton largely fortified and accelerated these assaults, exemplifying the bipartisan collusion of the elites against regular Americans.

Much has been written about the unprecedented inequality in the United States. An additional marker of a society in crisis is the status of the mental health of its population. With policies that have led to the privatization of prisons and health care, the deregulation of an already privatized pharmaceutical industry and a defunding of public mental health clinics, the nation is currently plagued by a mental health crisis that is reflected in a devastating heroin epidemic.

But how can a system maintain legitimacy while riddled with such gross corruption and inequality?

“Jesters do oft prove prophets.” Those words were penned by William Shakespeare in “King Lear.”

The iconic playwright and master of the written word recognized that humor can delegitimize anything. This observation especially applies to America’s political system. Late night viewers can watch as comedians lampoon, ridicule candidates for higher office, and use their comedic soapboxes to warn about the decay of American democracy … one laugh at a time.

Lee Camp, a comedian and host of the RT America program “Redacted Tonight,” uses his program to not only mock the corporate and political forces that are transforming America into an oligarchy, but to remind his audience that they have a moral and civic obligation to peacefully protest against the forces that dare rob them of their future. Camp recently spoke to me about the role of a comedian as it relates to electoral politics, and to talk about the influence of comedic legends such as Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, and George Carlin.

Kevin Patrick Kelly: What do you see as the role of comedy in electoral politics?